


From the Mouth of the Dragonborn

by WkdWtchOfTheEst



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: dawnguard spoilers i guess, just some weird adventures my dovahkiin goes on, redwater den
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 20:26:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14120124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WkdWtchOfTheEst/pseuds/WkdWtchOfTheEst
Summary: The Dragonborn regales her friends in tales from her travels around the province of Skyrim, stories concerning everything from bandits to vampires to Daedric Princes. Does she make it out alive? (Obviously, she's telling the story.) Shut up, Lydia!





	From the Mouth of the Dragonborn

**Author's Note:**

> So, I was wandering around, doing nothing in particular, when I found this place. My sister told me it's part of a Dawnguard questline, but I thought it was a weird dungeon with an odd tale.

I was in the Silver-Blood Inn in Markarth when Kleppr asked, “So Dragonborn, any stories you’ve got up your sleeve?”

 

I thought for a moment before one particular adventure came to mind. “Yeah, actually. I do.” I began.

 

“Okay, so I was in Shor’s Stone. I had to head back around those mountains to get back to Darkwater Crossing to deliver this package thing, but I didn’t want to go along the road, that would’ve taken too damn long, y’know?”

 

I saw a few people nod their heads in agreement, but most shook their head.  


 

“I decided to take a shortcut and follow the mountains by the southern way and follow them back up to Darkwater. I came across this random run-down building. I go up to the front door, but it’s been blocked by a table, right?

 

“So I walk around to the side, and whaddya know, the walls been knocked out. And there’s this random bandit-looking chick just sitting there in a chair, staring at the empty hearth. So I approach her, my hand is on my dagger, no big deal, I can take her.

 

“She turns to me and says, ‘If you’re here to buy, go down the trapdoor.’

 

“That freaks me out. She doesn’t attack, nothing. She just keeps sitting there. So I think, ‘Why not?’ and I go down the trapdoor.”

 

At this a few people shake their heads, not wanting to believe my idiocy.

 

“First thing I see down there is a hallway and stairs leading further down. And there’s a  _ rug _ in the hallway. I go down the stairs and I’m greeted by this doorman.

 

“He says, ‘You’re here for the good stuff? Right down here. I’ll get the door for you.’

 

“At this point, I’m thinking something fishy’s going on. At the very least it’s a skooma den, but I wouldn’t have a story if that was all it was. So I go through the door and go down even more steps and I meet the dealer and she’s in this lavishly decorated room, or at least lavish for bandits, and she’s behind a barred counter.

 

“She’s like, ‘We’ve got the best skooma, you can buy it from me, then go and enter one of the rooms just down that way.’ She points down another hallway that was just as fancy as everything else so far. Even the smoke in the air had this pinkish tinge.

 

“I say to the dealer, ‘This is my first time, I should get one on the house.”

 

“She gave me this sorta, ‘uh-huh’ look, but handed me one anyway. So I take it and I look into each of the rooms as I pass them. A bandit was in one, a nobleman in another, I think an Imperial deserter was in another? And the last one had a dead guy in it. I figured I needed to try this skooma out, and you know I don’t do skooma, but this place was so weird, y’know? I needed to see what was wrong about the place and shut it down if need be.”

 

I got a few raised eyebrows and disbelieving looks.

 

“What? You gotta do what you gotta do,” I said, earning a half laugh from a few people. I continued my story.

 

“I went into the last room with the dead guy, mostly because I didn’t want to be around those other assholes, and I drank the skooma. It started out with the regular side effects, blurry vision, dizziness, but then this weird pain shot up my spine and I passed out.

 

“I don’t know how long it took for me to come to, but when I did I was in a cage and outside the cage was the ugliest fucker I’ve ever seen. This guy was a vampire, wearing that weak-ass vampire armor, and had those glowing eyes? Anyway, I figure this thing’s captured me so that I can join his army of the undead. And right away, I’m like, ‘Uh, no.’”

 

A few chuckles from my sarcasm-appreciating friends.

 

“So I pick the lock, no problem, and I pull my dagger from my belt. Let me tell you how stupid these guys must be; I still had all my weapons on me. Either they were really stupid, or really cocky. Whatever they were, I slit this guy’s throat from behind and his thrall comes running when she hears his body hit the floor. I fireball her and she goes down too.

 

“Now, I’m not one to ignore an opportunity. I start scavenging around, and what do I find? A fucking Telekinesis spell tome. One of the rarest, most expensive spells, and I find it here? Some damn good luck there.

 

“I just keep moving through the ruins, killing things. I find the vats where they were cooking the skooma and off to the side was where I was brought in from the side room. But I ignore all that. I keep exploring, cause I can’t leave all this so that it can be rebuilt and keep tricking poor saps into being an undead army.

 

“So I make my way into what looks like a Nordic ruin. It’s got puzzles and long winding hallways that lead back to where it starts, and I keep going. At one point I got to this big chamber with a ton of coffins in it, and where there’s a ton of coffins, there are a ton of vampires. I kill them and find the way out and further into the ruin.

 

“I don’t know if I said this before, but there were alchemy labs everywhere. Every other room had at least one. And ingredients were abundant. By now, half of everything I had was either skooma I found laying around or ingredients to make skooma.

 

“The really weird thing was that I hadn’t found any living draugr yet. Living dead. Undead. Whatever. And in most ruins you can’t go more than ten feet without waking one.”

 

“That is weird,” Lydia said from where she was leaning on one of the walls. I nodded and continued my story.

 

“Then I came to another big chamber, and it had the boss vampire, right? So I take down his thrall with a well-aimed arrow, then I take him down with another arrow. So much for being the boss vamp. I found a couple of his journals around the ruin and apparently this guy had been making this skooma and using humans to further his research.

 

“I finish going through the treasure in the room and this vampire had left a bowl full of gold and gems right where anybody could take it. Didn’t he ever worry that his underlings would take all his shit and run off with everything? I dunno, it doesn’t matter anymore anyways. I grab the valuables and get out of there.

 

“The next room though was the weirdest part of the whole crazy adventure. It was this cave. And in the center of it was this, I don’t know how to explain it. Water spout? It was like an upside-down waterfall. And it was blood-red. So of course I approached it. And drank from it. And contracted Ataxia and Vampirism. Luckily, I had a few potions of cure disease on me, so no big deal. At least I know what it was and what would happen if I drank from it. And why it was a good thing I stopped the vampires from continuing to spread it.”

 

“Gods, you’re so stupid,” Lydia said.

 

“It’s a good thing I usually bring you along now,” I said.

 

Lydia narrowed her eyes at me and said, “You wouldn’t have to if you didn’t do stupid things. Like drink potentially dangerous liquids from unknown sources.”

 

I gave her a cheeky grin and continued.

 

“So I left that cave and went through the next door. There was a secret door on the other side, I went through it, and found myself back in the skooma den. But all of those other people that had been there before were dead. So I made my way back up, killing another couple vampire thralls. I left the area and made my way to Darkwater Crossing. That’s it, the end.”

 

“You must’ve been scared being surrounded by so many vampires,” Hroki said.

 

“Why would you think that?” Kleppr asked her. “She’s Dragonborn. She’s taken down Alduin, the Forsworn, what’s a few vampires?”

 

I spoke over Kleppr to Hroki. “It was pretty scary. It was more weird, but y’know. Terrifying too.”

 

“In a run-down house in the middle of the forest where a skooma den was hidden,” Ogmund began to sing off-hand. “The Dragonborn went in to end her curiosity.”

 

“Okay, okay,” I interrupted over the raucous laughter. “I’ll buy everybody in here a round if you don’t finish that song.”

 

The evening went on by rounds of mead and tall tales told. Eventually Lydia and I left to the manor across the way. I went straight to bed while Lydia and Agris stayed up, chatting late into the night.


End file.
